What If There Was a Cold War Between the U.S. and China?

We’re already seeing a return to Cold War era containment strategies as the relationship between the world’s two largest economies deteriorates, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and author of 'Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World.'

This is a “what if” interview from the World Economic Forum’s Risk Response Network. To view the rest of the series, click here.

We’re already seeing a return to Cold War era containment strategies as the relationship between the world’s two largest economies deteriorates, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and author of Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with TIME, quizzed Bremmer on the nature of U.S.-Chinese tensions and what can be done to soften them.

We’re in a situation where the world’s largest economy is not doing so well, the world’s second largest economy is still growing very strongly, albeit at a slower rate, and the two countries have totally incompatible economic and political systems. The relationship between China and America is only becoming more problematic. In the foreign policy debates ahead of the US presidential elections, Obama referred to China as an “adversary” for the first time. It’s not just about political posturing. China is the single biggest challenge to US foreign policy, in that Americans mostly see foreign policy in terms of how it impacts the American economy, and China is increasingly a market that many people believe is not playing by the rules, from intellectual property to state capitalism to cyber attacks.

Similarly, in Chinese state media, you’re seeing much more assertiveness, more talk of the Americans trying to contain China, the Americans “not wanting us to be world beaters”, “not wanting us to be number one”. There’s no question that the Americans and the Chinese at the highest level do understand that it’s dangerous for both countries to allow their relationship to be a disaster, so they’re trying to avoid unnecessary conflict. But the problem isn’t really unnecessary conflict—it’s that the necessary conflict over huge structural issues like currency and trade is building up.

What warning signs have you seen?

There’s the massive increase in tensions between China and Japan: in the last few weeks, there were anti-Japan demonstrations in about 100 cities in China, Japanese car sales in China were down 49% last month, and every CEO I spoke to at the recent IMF meeting in Tokyo said that this issue would dramatically change their view on doing business in China. This is significant because, ultimately, America is Japan’s defence policy: they have a strategic alliance, so if there is a problem between Japan and China, we know where the US is going to come down.

How does China’s holding of U.S. government debt affect the relationship?

The Japanese are actually on track to become the largest holder of US debt, externally, not China. China is trying to decouple from the dollar. If you look at what they’re doing in building domestic consumption and expanding South-South trade, then it’s clear they want to be in a position where there’s less mutual dependence with America. But that’s a long way off, and China is still very much America’s banker.

What about China’s political succession?

In China, you don’t have strong individual leaders, you have government by consensus, so as a consequence the actual composition of the leadership is not going to influence foreign policy too much. What you do have are a lot of moving pieces. There’s the Bo Xilai scandal, there’s the way Xi Jinping disappeared off the scene for a couple of weeks: these things cause all kinds of rumours, and then the government becomes more risk averse as a result. Both because of the political transition and the slowdown – globally and in China – Chinese government officials are less willing to take risks, and those risks include the transition of their economy and their political system towards more structural reform. That’s what’s needed for China to have a better relationship with the US, and it’s absolutely not happening.

If the relationship were to deteriorate further, how would this happen?

It’s already becoming a new kind of cold war. What this means is that the Americans and the Chinese will be frenemies. They’re not going to become enemies, because that’s not possible, but they’re not friends any more, either. All of America’s allies are very much afraid of China’s rise, so they’re begging the US to play a more significant role in Asia. You can see what the Americans are doing in response: in South Korea, they sign a new ballistic missile deal, in Indonesia they send over fighter aircrafts, in Australia they send a whole bunch of marines to Darwin, and on and on. There have been lots of joint military exercises in Vietnam and the Philippines. Then there’s also the question of cyber attacks: China is America’s principle enemy in this area, and vice versa.

The big question is to what extent all this is going to bleed over directly into the economic relationship. It’s already starting to, in that a lot of American firms are saying “We don’t have the access we used to into China, and furthermore the Chinese are stealing all our stuff.” As the Chinese firms get larger, that will start to have a greater impact on trade. The Doha round of international trade talks was meant to include China, but that’s dead, and China isn’t part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. On a big strategic level, all this is increasingly looking like cold war, like containment.

What would be the next phase?

You’d start to see more tit for tats on new trade tariffs, and new sanctions between the two countries. America would press its allies much harder to align their investment policies with the US. You’d start to see US corporate leaders publicly coming out and taking an anti-China perspective, while the Chinese would be more aggressive about the need to work away from the dollar as the reserve currency.

On a cultural level, in America you would see fewer Chinese students, fewer Chinese people buying properties there. And Lord knows, there is always the potential for xenophobia: you only have to think back to the Japanese internment camps. Anti-Chinese sentiment would be a dangerous and an ugly thing, especially if you continue to have this growing divide between the rich and poor. On the other side, it’s not unthinkable that a Chinese government under pressure domestically would push anti-American sentiment as a palliative.

The original Cold War was a clash between two clearly opposed ideologies. Is that the case here?

America’s ideology has not fundamentally changed, though it’s not as palatable or powerful as it used to be. It’s all about individual freedoms and liberties, democracy and free market enterprise. Over recent years, the U.S. has taken many hits on this, whether you look at the financial crisis, or human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, or the incredible power of corporate interests in its elections. But having said all that, you still can’t compare where the U.S. stands on these issues and where a country like China does.

China has no rule of law. It is an authoritarian political system and a state capitalist system. It’s not as if the Chinese are publicly promoting the notion that everyone should be authoritarian or that everyone should be state capitalist: Chinese ideology is about the Chinese state. It does not develop allies based on shared values; it develops allies based on shared interest. This is not true for the US: of course it has allies based on interest, but historical allies based on shared values play an oversized role, whether we’re talking about Britain and the US, or Israel and the US.

In this context, what would be the equivalent of a Cuban missile crisis?

Either a massive cyber attack, or the United States stepping in to defend the Japanese if they got into a conflict with China over contested territories. But there we’re talking about a cold war spilling over into a hot war, and I think the likelihood of that is very, very low, because national security today is driven much more by economics rather than geopolitics.

How well prepared are we for the challenges of a new cold war?

We’re not. The old, US-driven institutions like the G20 are no longer functioning adequately.

What are the solutions?

Don’t allow the great to be the enemy of the good. Allow more manageable, smaller organisations with more like-minded countries and more like-minded actors (like corporates, NGOs and individuals) to provide some form of leadership to respond to these issues. Ultimately, if the US is going to have a productive relationship with China, which is what everyone wants, you have to have strong baseline organisations that the Chinese want to join. When the WTO was created, nobody thought that China would ever be a member, but it became so strong and inclusive that the Chinese decided that the opportunities of joining outweighed the risks. We need institutions in place that will become attractive to the Chinese government, as their population gets wealthier and more people would support the rule of law. Ultimately, you need to create the kinds of clubs that the Chinese feel they need to join.

Maybe ET and his buddies will invade earth and finally drive together our planet's leading powers thus giving birth to one mean fighting machine, aka the UNSC, United Nations Space Command or better yet, a new organization, the EA, Earth Alliance.

Off-course, we can always go with a more realistic approach and allow for the death of millions of men, women and children via conventional or nuclear war just to prove which country can urinate further.

what can I say?, Is it really in our genes, is this part of our evolution? or have we not learn anything from WWII and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Do we really envisioned our future and that of our children's generation living in a world such as the one depicted on "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy.

Stop sissy sassing with each other and focus on establishing a moon base by 2025, mining for unobtainium aka Tritium from the lunar surface so we can fuel the next generation nuclear fusion reactors and or create a lucrative export worth billions of dollars.

Article Act 5 was wistfully created without any countries(World) knew that,so it's not international standard trues at all. US is busybody go around the world and promote to warn other nation about war . More business for US to sell weapon to kill more innocence people. Don't forgot US was attack at Hawaii Pearl Harbor and huge damaged by Japanese,then US also drop two atomic bomb at Nagasaki and Hiroshima,Japan. They are enemy ,how can they sign pact together ,Both are liar. Even that have will not be recognizing by UN ,this act is against China claim in East or South China Sea belong in ancient time. China also prepare for those want to aggravate trouble to this area ,for sure will counter back them off completely.

Japanese until now never want to admit serious wrong doing and full stick mistake at present world .GOD teach them with Tsunamis ,earthquake recently may still not enough yet.Whole world knew what Japanese killing innocence civilian in Nanjing ,China. Still want to start short/long war with China with the support of US military backing.China will back them off by act aggravating trouble around Diaoyu Islands at east china sea.Don't forget ,China have huge military modern weapon now days can put resistance against US allied with Japan.Not one gun bullet as before still won the war strongly resistance in Korean (US lead as United Nation)and Japanese second world war.

People accuse Chairman Mao of starving 30 million people in 1958~1961, they forget that in the long history of China, always there is famine, and thousand people die of hunger, and war; Chairman Mao help to establish a new country, a country that no foreign colonist may dare to invade with just a few canons and guns; Although he is not good at economic, and has conducted very wrong action is his later year of life, but nevertheless, I think the judgement by the communist party is right, 70% achievement, 30% mistake;

The American Indians were exterminated because of what, because they are not democracy, because they are not human, because the violated the human right of Tibet; Remember that they are of yellow skin, similar like Chinese, so many blood has been bled to establish the present People's Republic Of China, although she is not perfect, has a lot of problem, but still deserve our love and protection.

The biggest Nobel Price shall be given to Einstein, and his fellow scientist, they creat a weapon which promise of mutual or complete destruction of the world; otherwise the Chinese will no longer complain the high price of the house, because there will be third or fourth world war, with huge decrease of population, this the world war that Mr. Mao expected, that is why, he always focus on military and political issues, ignoring much of economic development.

The USA should abandon their obsession with power and realize that they have no right to dictate to others which system to adopt. China is a sovereign state, and American politicians are not elected by the Chinese. Even though we as individuals might disagree with China's political system ( as I do), it is the Chinese people themselves that have to put pressure on their government, not us.

As to "state capitalism". I'm afraid that the US, which runs trade deficits with many countries, shouldn't keep on criticizing other countries' economic system. They should rather look at themselves and realize that the neo-liberal economic policy that the US have been pursuing for decades has been a failure. States that intervene in the economy and pursue an industrial policy, such as Singapore, S. Korea or China, have been growing ever since the 1960's. Scandinavian, or northern European countries in general, have also been extremely successful. The USA has shifted so much to the right that they have forgotten that they were a protectionist country with an average of 20% tariffs until WWII, and they've also forgotten the achievements of the New Deal consensus, when the US were the first world power economically and a leader because everyone looked at the US with envy and admiration. Nowadays, the charm of the Us has faded, and if they maintain the same neo-liberal, ideological policy, they will keep on declining. Let's not blame China or see China as a threat only because we're doing something wrong. Let's not do what the British did: outweigh their economic decline by clinging desperately to their global power.

The US have to re-invent themselves, improve their economy and understand that the world of tomorrow will be a multi-polar one, in which the US will be one major power, but not the only one.

I feel that there is a great internal conflict within China between those who want growth in power from economic growth, and those who want growth of military power and influence. China's South China Sea grab is disturbing its relations with its southern neighbors. If not for this, those countries would gladly participate in China's economy. Now, they are all taking a second look. If the Chinese militarists win out, then I think you will see the Chinese economy getting more insular. If this new cold war develops, it will be mostly from actions taken by other players in the region. Will we use our navy to maintain the South China Sea as international waters? If we do that, what is the chance of direct confrontation of our navies? But, I don't think this is a predestined course. I do not think China has fully committed itself to a militaristic path.

Many western journalists write things that they do not really know! people writing China like the 1.3 people China; they actually see the communists as 'China'!

You have to separate the two; the new China emperors are much more ruthless, much more repressive, much more violence .. and much more deceiving! They control all China land ( no private property allowed), all China newspapers, all TV, all radio, they control and abuse all China wealth, resource..

They tax, they take everything ordinary Chinese have. In the end Chinese people work to death for the communist to enjoy.

Civilized people must challenge the China emperors, ask them to live, behave like civilized, real leaders; you just can't bow to them to sell burgers, phone in China!

Fight for China people by asking the emperors not to tax Chinese to the bone.. Once the ordinary Chinese have enough money they will buy more thing from the US, reducing the imbalance trade.

Bring down the China (internet) WALL!!!

Many clueless people sympathized the UNDER (MAD) dog Viet cong in their fight with South Vietnam, they have no clue that the mad underdogs were instructed by China to kill their own people, the same tactic that China used in Cambodia. Cambodia, Vietnam are still in ruin, Vietnam has been living on handout from their victims, the South Vietnamese refugees send back ten of billions dollars annually. Vietnamese's height and weight of are going to be in the Guinness book of records for being SLIM.

China has two major issues in dealing with America and the west that make it quite different from any previous cold war situations: One, it needs to keep up the present level of exports to the west just to keep the emerging middle class employed employed, happy, and 7% minimum growth controlled. And two, the People's Liberation Army is a huge segment of the GDP that also manufactures it's own consumer goods for export and is largely not directly controlled by the central government via. taxation and in fact can act as competition in the marketplace and can tend to send mixed messages to the west. Add to this mix the high level of corruption in local governments stirring the pot and a grass roots (and newly internet driven) blog sphere environment that has real impact on how the central government is perceived and can cause widespread unrest when said corruption is outed and you have a emerging and fast changing social structure that is bound to be turned to making the West (and us) seem the common enemy just to take off the heat from internal stresses. But make no mistake, China needs us as much or more so that we will ever need China, and the Chinese leadership is very aware of that and are not about to rock the boat with another so-called cold war against the hands that are literally feeding them.

Cold war would force this country to make our own crappy products and there wouldn't be as many billionaires in this country making money off of slave labor in china, selling us overpriced junk. What a shame!!

I have some real doubts about the expertise that supposedly underlies this article.

"China is the single biggest challenge to US foreign policy, in thatAmericans mostly see foreign policy in terms of how it impacts theAmerican economy, and China is increasingly a market that many peoplebelieve is not playing by the rules, from intellectual property to statecapitalism to cyber attacks."

Not clear how this explains Korea, Vietnam, either Gulf War, Iraq or Afghanistan. The last two, in particular, clearly arose out of reactions to 911. Actually, if anything is clear, it's that the American public is always either persuaded with misinformation or overridden (isolationism is still the American popular choice) when our leadership class decides to go to war.

The contrast in governmental systems also seems bogus. For decades, we were friends with the Shah of Iran, a dictator, we still are allied with the Saudi monarchy, and supported Pinochet, who also ran a murderous dictatorship. Who do we think we're kidding? Answer: ourselves.

One of the interesting ideas presented here is that Chinese foreign policy and government is more of a committee than the US -- we-- with our famous "imperial" presidency. Isn't that more like dictatorship, at least in terms of foreign policy?

Dead giveaway department: this: "China is increasingly a market that many people believe is not playing by the rules, from intellectual property to state capitalism to cyber attacks."

These rules are being treated here like physics.They are at this point in history imposed by the US. Lots of people in the world disagree with"the rules." Maybe state control over capitalism ought to be in "the rules." I'd certainly agree -- especially in light of the fact that we used to have it from Roosevelt, and bought a series of economic disasters after the controls were lifted.

Clearly, our beloved military/industrial welfare recipients are casting about for a new "major threat." China, as a rising society, fills the bill, although some try occasionally to make Russia play its old role. The Anglo-Americans made the same mistake when Germany began to assert itself as a rising power. The result of challenging China could lead to a much more disastrous outcome than both world wars combined.

Its important to remember that these nations are the world's largest trading partners and are mututally dependent on each other as a result. Even taking the recent territorial spats and the sea trials of the carrier into account, I would doubt the US and China will become hostile to each other in the near future...neither country can afford it. Still, I would be a bit worried about the increases in Chinese military expenditure over the course of the past two decades, it really is impressive and suggests grand ambitions, especially at a time when the US is desperately trying to curb their own military expenditure: http://www.statista.com/statistics/151195/china-military-spending-since-1991/

am i reading times? the author writes as if he knows china but has little idea about what china really is, i think he got to know china through the news, alot of the them are distorted and doesn't paint the real picture. but i think i'll give him the benefit of doubt, but if you witness the changes for the last 10years, you will understand everything just keeps getting better. but i guess writing this is futile. you will not understand until china has overtaken the US.

go to china and talk to the people on the ground. and no, they are not misguided, you are...they are more aware of the problems they face.

With the rise China's military spending, It's almost certain that China will use its military not just for show but in actually killing and destroying like any other super power before. They are not going to be UN peacekeepers and they are very fond of redrawing maps.

So there will be war. The USA need not worry. China will only go for small poorer nations that have no chance of winning., you know the Art of War.

There is so many hostile language now in America, while the time is different now. Chairman Mao was dead, no strong man in China has the courage to protect Chinese against any danger from outside now. If you want peace, you must be prepared for war; the side truth is that China has too much corruption, which is simliar to the Qing Dynasty in 1840s. We shall hear the hard truth that the America is still leading the world in technology and innovation, the GDP per person is $4,000 in China, while $40,000 in America; what Chinese people earned is through hard work in blood-sweat factory. There is no proud about the ecomonic growth, which is at the cost of great environment sacrifice; the education of China is at a mess, stress too much on education background, and neglect the trule spirit of learning; China has slept for thousands of years, thinking its self as the center of the world, with so much arrogance and pround. It is time to wake up again, to prepare for all kind of potential danger, to improve its education system, in a world with increasing outside hositility.

no matter cold or hot , war is still warm , the results of war is sufferings of people from both sides. These two largest economic bodies can share a lot in common , especially for the trade and technology development, even there are no common values. And there is no way to change the different punt value into the same shape and sense . But the common interests of people are still stable employment and welfare .

I would like to finish up by saying. The US could get out of deficit in 1-2 years if we just created 2,000 export business and got countries old religious loans. Where we get them development loans they have to buy from us. Then after the US gets into a surplus we forgive the loans and their markets mature and they can start exporting with everybody too. We did this during the cold war. We do not need to cut anything that is what the Unrestricted Warfare Manual of the Chinese PLA wants us to do to implode our political Democracy. As it places stress on the workings of legislation when we are the worlds worst account balance holders. That is one of the only way you can destroy Democracy implode it economically.Cody A. FitchAuthor of the worlds biggest economic cite Rider I Anti Economic Warfare Blog

Well some Americans will be pissed because cheap TVs will be become a thing of the past. And some (read most) Chinese will be stuck slowly starving to death because they dont have jobs and because food prices would go up by a factor of x5-8 times.

Why is the specter of U.S.-China confrontation so real?The reason why it is so real is because the Communist Chinese constantly threaten the west and Democracy. From their president declaring culture war on Democracy, to them writing a book that stated they will pay al queada to drive the us into an economic intel drain war so they can monopolize the worlds resources, to them using our service union through bribes to direct cyclical economic driven economic implosion. Also the USA is a lot smaller and believes in small cultures. However, Communist China over its years has shown they care not about small cultures and will invade to take over and destroy cultures for their need for resources.

What warning signs have you seen?

These range from their President declaring war, their president creating massive expansion in espionage schools and bases, the Communist Chinese praising attacks by fascist proxy warriors on the US and its allies. The Chinese funding fascist political system, and genocide in Africa. Also other warning sings are the idea that the Chinese blamed the US on the world's economic collapse. Yet their own military admits to doing it so they could collapse the West and Democracy and buy it all up. As per again the Unrestricted Warfare manual written by the PLA. Also warning signs are that 30 years ago Communist China signed a International documented of promise of trade to use less state owned enterprise business in their economy and to become a Democracy. Today the Communist Chinese have more state owned enterprises that are richer and more powerful than some countries put together. While their communist party stated they will never become a Democracy.

How does China’s holding of U.S. government debt affect the relationship?Not really the debt holdings do not matter. If they threaten to sell of then our currency goes down which means we can compete with more exports. They sell all they want it would be against their best interest to try and do that as our export capacity would grow substantially and thus get us out of deficit due to exports bringing in foreign fresh treasury.

What about China’s political succession?

Probable not happen the Communist Chinese use their big nature to threaten and bully. So succession is not an issue. Unless the US gets into a surplus and is able to gain more extra intel funds to free the political parties in China from fascist control.

If the relationship were to deteriorate further, how would this happen?

It can't deteriorate any further than it is except full out warfare. The Chinese are already destroying our economy, funding proxy warriors that are fascist, causing genocide to monopolize resources, etc the list goes on. When you read a history book of a belligerent country to a country the acts of Communist China meet the check list. The relationship can only get better by the US stops lieing to itself and operates like we did against the Soviets who did the exact same text book mono fascist party system plays Communist China is doing.

What would be the next phase?

As per Harvard Economics. The next phase for the US is to declare trade war against Communist China like we did against the Soviets. This will force countries to chose between Communist state owned take over and anti trust violations of dumping and cartels as compared to free market trade. Once the US does this and concludes in congress and in court that Communist China is our biggest enemy like the Soviets where. Then the US can start to counter trade against Communist China. So we can export more and develop more free markets. Instead of the current trend of the Communist Chinese primarily working with fascist governments and trying to develop communist parties and state owned enterprise systems.

The original Cold War was a clash between two clearly opposed ideologies. Is that the case here?

I think you need to study communist china more on this issue. When you say Communist China develops relations not due to ideological perspective. I think you are wrong. If you look at the majority of international contacts with the Communist Chinese. They are all extreme left leaning institutions or conservatives who are greedy and have given up the idea of Democracy for greed. Communist China is the same exact system as the Soviet Union. 75% of their market is run by the mono single party or the constitutional state the Communist Party. The same exact number as the soviet's economy. The other 25% is forced to be part of the Communist Party due to hostile laws to any other political party building an economy big enough to challenge the rule of the Communist. There is no difference in Communist China. As the Soviets had a major mass market bullying tactics like the Chinese do. The only difference is that one heritage was evolved in the snow and the other in the Jungle so their eye's are different.

How well prepared are we for the challenges of a new cold war?

We are very well prepared for a new cold war. We have taken stances in the area of the worlds most hostile forces. Ready to operate like the cold war against the Communist Chinese. We are in major deficit, so we have a need to challenge the current world economic bullies. Also our military is secured in and all around China. While also even more so than before. Russia is now a Democracy and is 100% willing to work with the US in Democracy building especially the conservative party of Russia. The US could not be more prepared for cold war. All we have to do is prove that the Unrestricted Warfare manual exists and it does the PLA admitted and should us what they are doing. If you look at Libya where the US helped boot out over 10,000 Communist China and the mineral industries was given back to Democracy and taken from the fascist mono culture of Communist China. There is no real difference between this cold war and the old cold war except our development trade strategies are very weak in exports for the US and our allowance of massive dumping strategies by Communist state is very weak also.

What are the solutions?

There is only one solution speak the truth and start exporting against the Communist Chinese as they are a threat to Democracy, a culture that funds proxy wars against Democracy, a country that declares cultural war on Democracy, and most of all the Country that admitted to destroying the world economy in a military manual that tried to blame it on the USA.

It could actually become China against the rest of the world, which would be good for the US. Chinese might think of the West (especially the white people) as worthy adversaries that they have to compete against, but they tend to look down upon other Asians and Africans (with darker skin-color) as lazy and uncivilized barbarians eager to learn and adopt "The Chinese Way to Shenzhen Heaven". Poorer countries hate that kind of ethnocentric arrogance. China still depends a lot on other countries (i) for exporting their products and (ii) for importing natural resources (energy) and cannot afford to make too many enemies. China should be careful not to project too eagerly their new found wealth and power. The Americans even if they arenot universally "admired", still represents at least, a more familiar and "popular" culture in many parts of the world. Lady Gaga for example!

The best thing to happen to both countries is a cold war. One stops selling their garbage to us, and we stop losing jobs and technologies to them. Moreover, Russia and China can reacquaint themselves as they did before, monitoring each others position, while we regain our position of strength.

"The USA should abandon their obsession with power and realize that they have no right to dictate to others which system to adopt."

If that is true then the same could also be said of China. What of the Chinese relationships with Tibet, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, & Taiwan? Why has China made such enemies amongst its neighbours? Why is everyone in Asia nervous about the ambitions of China? If (as you say) the USA ought to abandon the concept of imperialism should not China do the same? Fortunately, the USA has grown into its relationship with its allies, who have no fear of conquest. The USA has learnt that it is better to make friends and cooperate with alliances and coalitions. They achieve common goals, as a first among equals. China cannot do this, because all its neighbours fear conquest.

If China would learn from the USA and support its neighbours. They may find more credibility in the international community. Having a great Chinese Empire does not require all its partners share the same flag. China’s ideals of nationalism are entirely outdated in the modern context.

Chairman Mao was one of the biggest traitors in Chinese history in ceding huge chunks of Chinese territories to the Soviet Union in treaties, as well as allowing Mongolia to secede from China to become a crony Soviet Russian state, for military and diplomatic support he needed in killing his own Chinese countrymen with different ideas.

@SwiftrightRight Well if we stop buying their stuff they will be just fine as they have a surplus in jobs and can't fill the millions of jobs seats that they need as per their massive centralized economic hold on the world. Stop selling them cheap food. That is going to happen anyways. The Communist Chinese are on an agricultural economic warfare like they where on a resource and manufacturing economic warfare. If you look at their attacks on farms in small lands like New Zealand and Australia as per blocks on their foods. Then look at them going into buy up the farms they blocked and attacked. You see that at a point in time we will no longer be selling foods to them.

@jqm1 each in their own middle kingdoms. Well in Communist China there is no middle, its just extremist leftist. In the USA we are not alone wee are a Democracy. That means we have to work with each other and deal with each other.

@tocharian It already is Communist China against the rest of the world. However, nobody in this world is willing to stand up and lead like the US did during the cold war. For example our states person's told Australia after their farms where blocked and the metal industry complete blockaided then the CCP tried to buy them up after hurting their trade balance sheets that they where used to. The US State's person made the leadership decision to say you do not have to chose. No Democracy or Communism there is a choice in this world. As for their racist view point you are correct. Chinese actually have second class citizen id's for those races that are not city livers or Chinese heritage of the Mao dynasty chosen and those who liked them.

@CrestSea xenophobia fear of the unknown. No the US knows Communist China well. We have no racism or xenophobia it is a structural centralized system that has admitted to desiring the destruction of Democracy for its world political control and mono party take over.

@rorywong654 Rory illustrates the very real risk of one side misunderstanding the other. This risk is particularly high with China, which suffers from poor domestic media, shoddy analysts and a tendency to believe its own propaganda, whatever the facts may be.

@rorywong654 You are very correct we just need to finish the strategy of non communist allowance of their fascist economic system. By creating a great development strategy to get the US out of deficit with exports. Then have a stronger statesman stance against the Communist governance taken trade from Democracy governments.

@phankane that is very true. I like your theory. We are being sucked dry. Over the last 18 years the Communist Chinese have used a cyclical driven economic warfare drive using the US Service Union through corruption to direct our macro economics. The savings and loans, .com and mortgage industries all bubbled then the CCP took out or manufacturing business then burst and each time we went further into a deficit. The graph looks like a roller coaster. This is their unrestricted warfare manual on how they are going to destroy us as per the PLA. Over the last 18 years the US has lost 3,000 export business a year. Which if we would have stopped big foreign communist government state from taken our export industries. We would be in a 34 trillion dollar surplus.

@antonmarq This is true the best policy for the world is that. As today Communist china overproduces and destroys its own resources. They destroy so much world resources. That eventually they will have to invade more land to scorch more to keep up their centralized policy of SOE overproduction to sell cheaper to everybody.

@CodyAFitch1@SwiftrightRight This is kinda like the arguments about them buying mineral rights in nations aligned with the US. Do you REALLY think New zealand Australia Brazil and mexico will honor contracts to supply food on the cheap to China in the event of a real cold war?And even if they could import massive food stocks from Africa they would still be in a world of hurt because by us refusing to sell cheap food it would drive up the prices for every one. Even Russia would be hard pressed to counter us and help them because they rely on American corn and wheat to supplement their yearly shortfalls. I dont think the Russians are prepared to go back to Soviet style food rations just to help out China.As for China being the factory of the world well, you need buyers to keep factories open, and most of the buyers in the world happen to live in western democracies.